Christmas

We had a very low key, but wonderful Christmas this year.  We had all our Christmas decorations up on Thanksgiving.  (The weather was so nice, we couldn't resist putting up the lights in short sleeves.  It was good foresight on our part!)  We enjoyed making goodies for friends, getting Christmas cards in the mail, playing with the nativity set and counting down the days until the magic arrived.
We took a trip downtown to look at the giant tree and ice skating rink set up in the square.  We also checked out the multitude of gingerbread houses created by Pittsburghers.  The kids LOVED it.

 On Christmas Eve, we went out to dinner with some friends, and followed it up by looking at Christmas lights.  Then we went home and read/acted out the Christmas Story with the kids.  Brooke was Mary, Peter was Joseph, and they insisted that Heath be baby Jesus. 

Christmas morning was magical for the kids.  I just loved seeing their faces around the tree in the morning when they saw what Santa had left for them.  I didn't take many pictures.  I just wanted to enjoy the moment.  Merry Christmas to all my family and friends! 

Pictures of Ems

Check out my pictures of Emily and Ryan here

8 great things

Tomorrow Bryan and I will celebrate 8 years of marriage.  I still can't believe I was lucky enough to snag such a great guy!  I love him so much.
 Here are 8 things I love about our marriage.
1. I love that he cooks on Sunday.  Every Sunday he makes the family homemade waffles for breakfast and some form of random awesomeness for lunch.
2. I love that he plays basketball 1 night a week and I go to ballet 1 night a week.
3. I love that he loves me enough to work out with me.  We are doing "Insanity" together.  We are starting week 3.  We are getting our butts kicked together.
4. I love our evenings together after the kids go to bed.  (especially the nights this semester- No STUDYING!)
5. I love that he gives the kids a bath every night.
6. I love that he likes to take me on dates.  (I don't care where!)
7. I love that he will 'dress up' to take me on a date.  (meaning that he wears something other basketball shorts to go out in!)
8. I love that we have an eternity in front us!  I can't wait to spend the rest of forever with him.

Bryan Gets Crafty

Bryan decided a while ago that he really wanted to make the kids their own growth charts.  He did it all with minimal help.  I am super impressed.  We don't own a silhouette or anything of the sort.  These awesome letters were drawn and cut by hand, the old fashioned way.  Who knew Bryan would love vinyl and modge podge so much?!

 (I may have influenced Brooke's font and colors slightly...)

Bryan gets old(er)

Happy Birthday to the best husband and friend I could ever ask for!

I made and ice-cream cake, er, pie.  It was easy peasy.  I think he loved it.  We celebrated by going to dinner at Texas Roadhouse with the kids.  I love that our kids are so good at restaurants.  They love the peanuts and bread, so we don't really need to order them dinner!

In Heath news, he has found a favorite toy.  (Why do kids ALWAYS love electronics?)

We found him an extra remote, took the batteries out and wha-la! Heath and the remote are almost inseparable.  Its like having a tracking device on him. Or an alarm.  He hangs onto it while he crawls and I hear a 'thump-slap', 'thump-slap' against the floor letting me know exactly where he is at all times.  Did I mention this little guy just melts my heart?  He is so happy and easy going.  I just LOVE him!

Romney siting

I had the chance to go to a GOP rally and see Paul Ryan the day before elections.  It was so fun!  We left the kids with some friends, drove 2 hours to Ohio and got to meet some really nice people!

  If that isn't cool enough, I got a phone call from a friend who got word of Mitt Romney coming to Pittsburgh on election day!  She and I loaded the kids up in her Tahoe and headed out to the airport to check it out. 

 We waited for about 2 hours in the 'crisp' November air.  The kids did great.  (I brought the portable DVD player and they watched Aladdin)

 I know you can't see us, but Alex and I (and our 5 kids combined) are on the top level of the parking structure.  When we got here there was only about 25 people.  By the time we left there was over 1000.  This wasn't even an official 'rally'.  Don't let the media fool you.  Even though he didn't win, he had so much support. 

Thanks Governor Romney!  It was a good campaign. 

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for so many things.  I am so blessed with a wonderful family.  Here are a couple pictures of some of my favorite little people.

 This next one is such a classic- Brooke is trying to get Heath to smile...and failing miserably! 

 I gave Heath his first hair cut a couple weeks ago.  He really needed it.  I should have done it before we took all the pictures with the three of them!
Before:

 After:
 Two more pictures of my little cuties!

 Have a very Happy Turkey Day! 

 Count your blessings, name them one by one.
Count you many blessings, see what God has done!

Chef Peter

Peter made up a recipe in pre-school for Thanksgiving.

Ingredients: Eggs, butter, salt and pepper, lots of butter, potatoes, syrup.
Directions: Put them all in the turkey.  Put it in the oven.
Cooking time: 14 minutes.
Temperature: Hot- 15

His friend K had an even better recipe that had me laughing for a week after I read it.

Ingredients: Chicken Nuggets.
Directions: We don't cook it, we just buy it at Chick Fil A.  I eat it all myself.  My dad doesn't eat chicken nuggets, he just eats a French Fry sandwich.

(His mom is one of the best cooks I know!  I am sure she was excited to see this displayed in the hall way at the school!)

I love pre-schoolers.  They are hilarious.

Look-a-like

A few days ago I was dropping Peter off at school, and his teacher came up to me and was pretty excited.  She says- "I have a friend who looks JUST like your daughter! You have to see her!"
She ran back to her purse and grabbed her camera out of her bag.
She scrolls through the pictures trying to find her 'friend'.
Finally, she stops and shows me a picture of a 45 year old lady.
"Doesn't she look just like her!'
 I am thinking, you have got to be kidding me.
She was dead serious.
I was speechless.  How are you supposed to respond to that?!
Poor Brooke.  

the annual clean-out-your-closet post

It is time for my month of wearing every article of clothing in my closet!  (I usually do this in October, but things were so crazy this year I started in November).
Step One: Organize your closet and get rid of the stuff you didn't wear all summer.
Step Two: Arrange the clothes in any order you prefer.
Step Three: Start on the left side of your closet, and wear all the shirts in order until all items have been worn.
Step Three and a Half: after washing clothes, hang them back up with the hanger reversed and on the far end of the closet so you know they have already had a turn.
Step Four: If you decided not to wear any article of clothing, for ANY reason other than it was record heat and you didn't want to wear that wool sweater, time to say good-bye! 

I am 12 days into this, and I have barely any closet space (good ole' Pittsburgh construction) so I have both summer and winter out and I am trying to wear it ALL.  I am proud to say that I have about 55 tops that need to be worn...so all my layering skills are coming out!  ( I finally broke down and got rid of those wide leg khakis pants from 2002.  Other than that I actually have been good on keeping only the clothes that I actually wear)

Let me know how your closet cleaning goes!

Rapunzel, the Ruffian and Jake

I am really excited for Halloween this year.  And my kids are even more stoked.  They have found every excuse to wear their costumes, and I figured that they may as well get as much use from them as possible.  The weather has been amazing so we went out and took pictures last Friday in the foliage.

I did make Brooke's costume this year.  It was so easy and I love how it turned out.

I attempted Peter's too, but it didn't turn out so well, but I was lucky to snag this one last minute.  He loves it.  If you can't tell...

Fall is Here!

And of course life wouldn't be complete without me taking pictures...Some are a bit blurry, but I don't really care.  The kids were having a blast playing in the leaves.  I am such a sucker for a good colored tree!

The Great Gatsby

 We read the "Great Gatsby" for book club last month and dressed up like '20s girls for our get-together.  It was so fun!

Part 3- Staying Motivated aka Run a 1/2 Marathon.

Remember way back when (like 3 months ago...) I posted all about running?  Well, if you forgot, you can go here and here to read them.
I try to be consistent about working out and running.  Keeping myself motivated isn't too hard.  (I know, I am a wierd-o.  I actually like working out.)
Here are some things that help me look forward to working out.
   *My IPod with my running mix on it.  I don't like to change it up too often either because I am slightly OCD about the order of my songs for my runs.
   * My Nike+ Chip.  Its awesome.  I think I have raved about this enough.  If you want to read about it...click here.
   *Its time where I am doing something positive for myself and I get 30 minutes to be me, Jamie, and not mommy.  (well, kind of.  I am usually pushing at least 2 of them in the stroller, but they are strapped in and if I have my headphones in, I can pretend not to hear them if they want something...)
   *A workout buddy.  As nice as it is to be alone, it is even better to run with someone.  I have been blessed with some great friends to run with.
   *Setting goals for myself.  Some are big, some are small!
       example: Last week I wanted to do 2 five mile runs and 3 shorter runs.  The week before I just wanted to run 2-3 miles every day.  In the spring I set a big goal to run a half marathon.

I did it! (July 28..so I am a little behind)  It was hard to find time to train with 3 kids and a husband in school full-time.  Bryan is awesome and was so supportive.  I did my short(er) runs during the week with the kids, and ran my long runs on Saturdays.  This was an adventure in itself!  My earliest run was at 4 a.m.  On another Saturday I did 9 miles in the pouring rain- So much rain that it ruined my IPod screen.  I ran in scorching hot weather too!  And the best run I did in training was to run the trail from Carson Street to PNC park and back on the trails.

Here I am about at mile 9.  I kept expecting the wall to hit, but it really didn't! The first 6 miles flew by!  Mile 8 was a little harder, then I got a second wind until about 800 yards from the finish.  And then I felt like I was running under water.  I just couldn't get my legs to move like my brain wanted! 

 The BIG race day was the same day as my departure date to Arizona.  So I got up before the sun, ran 13.1 miles, showered and caught a plane, all before 1:30 p.m.  It was a LONG day.  We ran it on the GAP trail in Boston, PA.  Bryan rode his bike to be the water boy for us.  (and camera man)
My time: 1:59.  I am really happy about that time.  Its not 'official' because it wasn't a paid race.  I just mapped out the trail before and set my stopwatch.

Here are my awesome friends that ran with me.  Doug decided about 2 days before the race to do it with us, and Cori trained with me from the start.  It was her first 1/2.  And she totally beat me by at almost a full minute!  (I gotta improve that last 3/4 mile!  I was dead.) 

 Have you ever tried to jump after running 13.1 miles?  It is harder than it seems...

 Round 2... a little better...

 Don't judge my awful hair-do and sweat.  I am super proud to have completed my race!